


Practical Alchemy

by Mother_of_Rats



Category: Marvel, Marvel's Avengers (Video Game), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Alchemy, F/M, Immortality, Inhumans (Marvel), Romance, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:10:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 22,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26440114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mother_of_Rats/pseuds/Mother_of_Rats
Summary: Sometimes I wondered if I should have become an Avenger, to be respected and wanted for the things about me that were so strange. It wasn’t guilt, or shame, that stopped me; in much the same way that I’d stood back and watched Captain America first run into a battle, newly powered up and ready to fight for what he believed in, I just felt it was easier to exist without that kind of attention. Then, on the day of that horrible incident, A-Day, when so many others gained powers and persecution, I felt validated. When the damage had begun, I had turned to air and floated away on a breeze, taking some terrigen mist with me.Six years after the incident that disbanded the Avengers and created inhumans, AIM have been pushed back and the heroes returned, but there's still a lot to clean up. When Cress is rescued from an AIM facility her need to avoid answering questions, combined with knowledge of a threat with flimsy justification makes her to untrustworthy too just let go.*Updating every Sunday*
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Original Character(s), Bruce Banner/Original Female Character(s), Bruce Banner/Other(s), Bruce Banner/Reader
Comments: 7
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

Sometimes I wondered if I should have become an Avenger, to be respected and wanted for the things about me that were so strange. It wasn’t guilt, or shame, that stopped me; in much the same way that I’d stood back and watched Captain America first run into a battle, newly powered up and ready to fight for what he believed in, I just felt it was easier to exist without that kind of attention. Then, on the day of that horrible incident, A-Day, when so many others gained powers and persecution, I felt validated. When the damage had begun, I had turned to air and floated away on a breeze, taking some terrigen mist with me.

****

The worst day of my very long life was the day alchemists learned I could regrow limbs. They thought it was delightful to watch, and decided it would be a sport to see who could cause an injury that would last the longest. It was a very long time until the second worst day of my life happened, that was the day AIM realised I didn’t need to breathe. Sure, I was constantly suffocating and cells would die, but my body would convert the dead cell into a living one before that could matter. It meant they could keep me trapped and keep taking blood samples for as long as they liked. I had no idea what they hoped to find, I knew they had no interest in curing anyone, and there was no way I would allow them to see the full extent of what my blood could do. Days came and went in a blur of gasping and pain. I could have been in that tank for an hour or 5 years and there was no way for me to tell. A brain starved of oxygen hallucinates, and there is nothing better at destroying your grip on time than not knowing what’s real.  
What I do know, is that my grip was restored with a bang.  
The tank I was in shattered, I felt glass tear through a lot of my skin, but didn’t care in the slightest. I was far more focused on the air, rushing towards me. That first successful gasping breath was agony. It burned into my lungs, I’d never been so grateful for pain. With each breath they became less painful, and slowly I became aware of the crashes still happening around me. A shield soared over the top of the shattered tank I was suspended in, crashing into a turret. Gun fire blasted from behind me, and I attempted to shy away, but the braces on my arms and legs made movement impossible. I tried to soften my body, if I could form into gas or liquid I could get out of this, but I was still too dazed, my instincts too focused on healing injuries to allow me to shift. I worked on calming myself. I had oxygen, which meant if I just stayed put long enough I’d be able to get out of here.

I began looking around the room, taking in the chaos happening around me. The shield had definitely been Captain America. He tore through robots so efficiently, it reminded me of spying on the war zones so many years ago. Natasha Romanov dropped down next to him moments later, she said something and I watched a smile play over both of their faces.  
Well, I guess they like their job…  
I slid my eyes away from them, looking to where most of the noise was coming from. I felt the blood drain from my face as I spotted the Hulk. I’d never seen him in person, I didn’t like the idea of a creature that could dismantle me, and then turn into a scientist who could study the pieces, so I’d opted to stay out of his way; just another reason to not join the Avengers. The last person I saw, I didn’t recognise, she was young, definitely under 20; the Avengers were bringing kids into fights these days it seemed. Not that she couldn’t handle herself. I watched as her body stretched and grew at will. Her punches were brutal, and the way she moved was almost hilarious, her legs extending to make her jumps far longer than they should have been. I was so engrossed in watching the new girl that the crash right next to me shocked a scream out of me. I whipped my head around to see the shield rebounding back to Captain america as my hand started to drop to my side, the bonds broken. I flinched as the shield flew again, taking out the bonds on the other hand. I lost balance without the support and started to teeter forward, my legs still held in place by cuffs.

“I got you ma’am!”

The girl's voice was less surprising than her giant hand, wrapping around me to stop me falling. It was only another moment before my feet were freed too and I was being lowered to the ground.

“We have the inhuman JARVIS, send them in” Black Widow’s cool words caught up to me as my feet hit the ground.

“I’m not inhuman” The words came out of me in a rasp.

“Oh, are AIM in the habit of just locking up normal people now?” I watched as Black Widow’s eyebrows rose incredulously, “We aren’t anti inhuman, if that’s what you’re worried about. We just want to get you somewhere safe”

“Thank you. But I’m not inhuman,” I felt my throat getting more comfortable as I spoke, how long had it been since I'd done anything but silent screaming, “honestly, if you’re done with the, uh, heroic stuff, I’ll probably just be on my way…” I noticed movement in my periphery, and shifted, realising it was the Hulk and preferring to have him in my line of sight. “I’m really fine on my own… I’m here by accident.”

None of them seemed to be buying it. Black Widow was still looking at me with a weird professional interest, the Captain seemed very concerned, the girl’s eyes sparkled with excitement, all the while the Hulk just paced around impatiently. I tried to look trustworthy, I still wasn’t sure I could change forms fast enough to get out of here without being grabbed by the Hulk or stretchy girl, and an injury from either at the moment would definitely crush any plans of getting out of here.

Black Widow’s posture shifted as she got a proper look at me. I became aware of how scantily clad I was, paper patient dresses were not exactly made for group meetings. The fact that my body hadn’t converted it into blood gave me some indication of how long I’d been stuck here, or at least how much blood they’d taken. The Captain must have noticed as well, he had started looking slightly embarrassed, the girl and Hulk didn’t seem to pick up on it. Slowly, Black Widow addressed me again.

“Ok… Well, we can’t leave you here. And if you really aren’t an inhuman, we need to know why AIM had you here, what they were trying to do to you.” her words were careful, “So we’ll take you back with us. You can contact your family from the ship, and if everything is normal, we’ll take you back to them, after tests.”

I winced at the finality of her words, freedom, it seemed, was off the table for now.  
“Sure, you guys would know best, huh?” Even as I agreed, Black Widow's gaze didn’t shift away from mild suspicion. A problem for later though.


	2. Chapter 2

The trip to the helicarrier was a weird rush. The Captain and the girl, who I now knew was named Kamala, helped me with getting back to the jet, my legs it seemed were out of practice. I catalogued that away with the other information I was using to piece together how long I’d been stuck for. All the while Kamala chattered away, asking me questions about where I was from and how I’d ended up stuck in that big test tube, what AIM did to me. I gave vague answers, “I was born in France… I don’t remember… Mostly took blood” she seemed happy enough to keep the conversation flowing with that tiny amount of input from me. Widow kept me in her view at all times, and the Captain occasionally suggested to Kamala that I might be tired and she should let me rest. At some point on the flight the Hulk shrunk back down, sticking me in a far too small space with the man I feared most, Bruce Banner. It was a small mercy that he didn’t seem to want to talk, going out of his way to avoid any contact with me at all costs.  
When we landed, Widow walked me directly into a large laboratory. Scientists buzzed around the room, quietly discussing things and looking at various readings. I stifled a nervous giggle as the words “Scientists doing science shit” played in my head over and over. She motioned me to sit down.  
“Now, do you want to give your explanation for AIM keeping you as a pet sea monkey another go?” there was a sense of humour in her voice, but her eyes told a different story. Still, I couldn’t contain my sass.  
“Sea monkey’s need water, there was clearly no water in that tank with me.”  
“No air either.” I flinched at the statement, she went on, “I’d say not needing to breath is fairly inhuman”  
“I do need to breath” was my brilliant comeback, nearly 100 years to polish this sparkling wit and I’d basically gone with nu-uh. I wondered how quickly I could shift and bail off this craft.  
“Didn’t seem like it.” She shifted slightly and I got a firm reminder that this was Black Widow, and however quickly I could shift, it probably wasn’t fast enough to not get shot in the head. Which would firmly out me for at least a day. “So, again, why did AIM have you contained so carefully?”  
I took a steadying breath, buying myself a little time to put together a plausible explanation.  
“I don’t know why AIM had me in that tube” Truth, “I guess they sucked the air out to kill me when you arrived” Lie, “I’m not an inhuman though, I swear, I was living my normal life and then I was in pain, then you arrived.” Truth.  
I didn’t have a chance to see if she’d believed me before the door had slid open, and Bruce Banner, my nightmare, walked in, looking tired and already midway through addressing Widow.  
“Nat, does this need me? I know you like coming back from work to do more work, but I’d like some time to actually sleep”

“If someone else does this and misses something you’re just going to want to do it all over again anyway, why not get it right the first time?” her eyes sparkled with amusement, but I could still feel some attention lingering on me, and her hands still seemed like they could pull a gun at any time.

“Because by the second time I’d have slept?” his voice was defeated, and just a little bit desperate, and weirdly pleasant to listen to. I jumped slightly when his attention shifted to me, “So, has she bothered to get your name yet?”

“I uhh,” I faltered slightly as his expression shifted from tired to something soft and coaxing, like he was worried I would scamper “It’s Cress. I’m Cress.”

“I’m Bruce,” he replied, dragging over a chair and a small case of equipment, “Cress, I’m going to take some blood from you now, so we can see if AIM has done anything to you at all.”

He held his hand out to me, I looked at it with what I was sure was open fear. But this was my purest nightmare. A scientist who was somewhat known for pushing boundaries and testing things they shouldn’t, about to start running tests on me. About to see me as his newest experiment. No. No, he wouldn’t, I’d carefully focus on making my blood normal, no extra chemicals. It meant slowing down healing a few muscles that were still recovering from atrophy, but if I got through this I could shift, leave and then it wouldn’t even matter. I held my arm out for him, pushing down tremors that threatened to run through me.

“I’m sorry you had to meet the big guy earlier,” he said quietly, as he began to work. His hands were efficient, but gentle as he continued talking, “It’s not usually how I introduce myself to patients. But we weren’t expecting to bring anyone back here”

At the last words he smiled apologetically at me, I could still see the exhaustion lingering in his face, but his hands remained steady and sure on my arm.

“That’s fine.” I squeaked, trying to remind myself that I was an immortal death machine, sort of, “I’m honestly more scared of a needle than big green men”

It wasn’t entirely true, but I WAS more worried about Bruce Banner than the Hulk. He finished taking the blood and carefully pressed a cotton ball onto my arm, taping it in place to stop the bleeding. I knew it had stopped immediately, thankfully the ball would hide that fact. After it was done he looked up to me, his eyes had barely met mine before Widow cleared her throat, this time we both jumped.

“If you’re done Bruce, I need to question her some more,” the humour in her voice had changed, almost, exasperated?

“O-of course, I’ll go check this out.” He looked like a child that had been caught stealing sweets as he rapidly packed up and began to move away from us, “Nat, don’t be a bully.”

She snorted a quick laugh before taking up the seat he’d just been in. I began letting my brain trace over my body, assessing how quickly I could shift, while she was sitting I might be able to make it without being shot.

“So,” she began, “You were explaining to me how a non-inhuman needs to breathe, but apparently can go without oxygen?”

“I told you, I think they drained it when you arrived…” even to me the excuse sounded fake. I went to continue, but the words died on my lips, replaced by a quiet, “fuck.”

Widow’s attention snapped to me, her hand firmly on her gun now, I was scanning the room for the smell, the awful smell. I didn’t stand, I didn’t want to get shot, but I was looking around wildly, I spotted it then. Food, one of the technicians had just opened up a container of some kind of food. I had almost no time to decide if this was worth it or not, probably giving up my freedom to be Bruce Banners fucking lab rat to save one lab technician. I already knew what I was going to do, try to make up for my body count the same way I always did, like it or not. My eyes snapped back to Widow, dropping any of the dazed and confused I’d been trying to push into them until now.

“Don’t let that man eat that food. I promise I’ll stay here and not move if you don’t let him eat that,” I could hear desperation lacing my voice, and some fear. I really hoped this wouldn’t get me shot, AND still end with that man dead.

“Why?”

“Get the food away from him and I’ll explain fully, I promise.” I knew I’d keep that stupid promise too. Apparently I’d gotten loud enough for people to start looking. But it worked, Widow moved in an instant, ripping the container away from the shocked technician.

She carried the dish back over, the technician obviously deciding that arguing with Black Widow wasn’t worth it, he sat back down and pretended to look busy again. The acrid smell made my nose wrinkle, Widow was offering me the dish. I took it from her and placed it on the table firmly, as far from myself as I could reach.  
“I don’t want to eat it. The smell alone will put me off food for a month…” Her eyebrows raised at my shift in demeanor. If I was about to become a test subject again I was doing it on my terms, I took a breath before I continued, “someone is trying to poison your… crew? Staff? I don’t know what the people who work here are. But unless that one technician has really pissed someone off lately, I’d probably check where he got that then pull any food from that source.”

Briefly I wondered if this counted as just saving that technician, or if this counted as saving most people on this ship. It probably wouldn’t kill Thor or Dr Banner, so they had to come off count; Black Widow might have noticed the taste fast enough to only get really sick for a while, but I couldn’t say for sure. And I honestly didn’t know how a super soldier like Captain America would react to toxins, particularly not one this strong. My musings were cut short by Widow’s terse reply.

“How do you know it’s poisoned?” She poked at the food still in the dish, “I can’t see anything weird, or, what was it you said, smell?”

“It’s not… I can’t really smell it. It’s just the closest I can describe. I can feel it, interfering with the food… I dunno it never made sense to me. It’s stronger with toxins like this, at a guess I’d say ricin, it’s fucking with the make up of the cells around it,” my rushed out explanation, I realised, contained absolutely no useful information about how I knew it was there, so I plunged forward, “look, I’m not an inhuman, terrigen had nothing to do with me becoming like this. It happened well before that, I can feel the presence of toxins, at least the ones I’ve been exposed to. So that’s probably why AIM had me. Now did you want to get to checking on that food already?”

I clung to a final hope that she would go sort the food thing out, leave me here, and I would shift and float away on a lovely breeze, back to my life, away from any Avengers or Doctors who I found unnervingly reassuring, despite them being my greatest fear. Instead she gestured over a SHIELD goon and put them to work on it. Her gaze had become harder, somehow telling her that truth had shifted her trust even further away.

“What else?” The question caught me off a little.

“What do you mean what else? That’s all I know.” My confidence was faltering a little, I didn’t want to find out if the Avengers secretly tortured people, because I would fold like a shitty hand, and tell her my life story, if it was even an option.

“Nat, her results are normal,” Dr Banners tired voice broke the tension between us, “she’s not inhuman.” He turned to me before he continued, his eyes hardening slightly, “but your blood is perfect, not too high in anything bad, not low in iron or anything like that. Considering you’d been locked up, they must have been treating you immaculately. So who are you?”

“I was just a lab rat, really. That’s all. I just want to leave, and not be involved,” I couldn’t lie my way out of this, not really, if he took enough samples eventually I’d slip, they’d find something, who knew if AIM already had, “please. I don’t want to be tested and tested over and over again. I just want to go.”

“Tell me why they had you in a tank without oxygen, then we can talk about you leaving,” Widow’s eyes were still hard, but I could see the doubt forming. Maybe she did believe me? A little?

“It was to stop me escaping… I can heal from almost anything.” Half of the truth pulled itself out of me. For now I didn’t want to offer more, “If I was busy trying to heal dead cells caused by lack of oxygen… I couldn’t escape.”

The horror on Dr Banner’s face caught me slightly off guard. Widow was better at schooling her expression.  
“We are going to look into the poisoned food.” She sighed, “I’ll set you up in a room for the night, you have some sleep, then if you help us check the rest of the food, I’ll trust you, and we can whisk you back to wherever the hell you’re from. Deal?”

“No more tests?” My voice was smaller than I liked.

“No more tests.” It was Dr Banner who replied firmly now. There was pity in his eyes.

Widow led me to a room, showed me the bathroom attached and told me to get some sleep. I nodded, and turned to move to the shower before she spoke again, I froze at the cold tone.  
“Don’t do anything dumb. Get through this and let us take you home, I still have to put guards on the door.”


	3. Chapter 3

Bruce slumped onto the desk chair in his room, dragging his hands down his face. Being dragged on a mission that Thor or Tony could have handled was bad enough, now he’d be awake for hours trying to organise tests on all of the food supplies. Even if the woman they’d found could sniff it out, it wasn’t something they could really trust yet, and there was the bigger issue. He wasn’t sure he believed her about being inhuman, but he also couldn’t see any reason she’d have to lie about that, and then also admit to having some abilities.

It would have been a lot easier if he’d been able to believe she was up to something, believe she’d asked him not to run any tests so she could avoid being caught, but she’d looked so scared. He recognised that trapped expression, a little too well, and the thought that he was causing it didn’t sit well with him. He was pulled from his thoughts by a gentle knock, JARVIS confirmed it to be Nat, and Bruce let her in.

“So, what do you think?” Nat asked

“The healing explains her blood, and testing will tell us if she’s lying about the ricin. You’re the expert on spies though, if that’s what you think she is.”

“You don’t?” Her eyebrows quirked as she asked the question and Bruce shrugged in response. “She doesn’t seem at all suspicious to you?”

“She just seems scared to me,” he let out an exasperated sigh, “like someone who's been locked up and used as a pin cushion for god knows how long.”

“And she just happens to be rescued by us in time to save us from poisoned food?”

“We’re on a helicarrier with someone who fought against Hitler and a thunder god, is her arrival time really the strangest thing?”

“Yes.” The flat tone of her voice didn’t really leave space for debate. He had no other arguments to offer, instead he threw her a hopeless look and let the silence linger until she finally sighed, turned, and left.

****

The shower was divine, having a bed was better. No matter how well my muscles healed themselves, nothing would ever be the same as remembering what being comfortable was. As deeply as I slept at first, I still woke in the morning thrashing and gasping for air. My eyes shot open but the walls kept creeping towards me. The room shrank, and shrank. I shot from the bed towards the door, it opened in front of me and I found two guns pointed at me. The guards.

“Um,” I asked, trying to dampen the desperation, “I’m not… escaping. Are you allowed to take me to.. Uh, eat?”

Both guards must have been really desperate for promotions because neither even threw me a sympathetic glance, the guns just stayed firmly in place and neither replied. I started weighing my odds, they wouldn’t be as fast as Black Widow at shooting, and they weren’t aimed at my head. But if I ran now I’d be hunted. But I couldn’t return to that room, to the walls suffocating me. I opened my mouth to plead with them, until someone beat me to it.

“I’ll take her with me.” Dr Banner wore that same tired expression and I wondered if he, too, hadn’t slept perfectly.  
“Dr Banner, we can’t…” Oh, him the guards could respond to.

“I can handle her, don’t you think?” He cut them off, a little annoyance slipping into his tone. They looked unsure still, but both seemed to mutually agree that annoying him wasn’t worth keeping me locked in.

“She can’t be let out of your sight.” They said with forced authority.

“Yeah, I’m sure her goal is to be a fugitive on a helicarrier, in the sky, filled with armed guards and Thor.” The sarcasm in his voice made my lips twitch a little. But the guards were moving, so I quickly scrambled past them and took a steadying breath.

“Thanks, Dr Banner.” I still couldn’t look him in the eye, my deeply rooted fear held its ground, but the more pressing fear kept my attention for now. “I appreciate it. Ummm, I don’t suppose there’s somewhere I could be… outside?”

He looked a little surprised by the request, but only for a moment, it was quickly replaced by a kind of understanding sadness. We passed through the recreation room. A TV was playing the news, but I was busy blocking out my surroundings as Dr Banner collected us some food from a counter, it wasn’t long before he was leading me into an aircraft hanger, down some stairs, then over to a huge opening. A door? I didn’t know what to call the massive thing, all I knew was I could see outside, clouds sat below us, and the open sky above and beside us. I took a deep breath and felt the panic melting back.

“Were you claustrophobic before?” Dr Banner’s question startled me back to reality. He was looking at me, the question lingering between us.

“Not this bad,” I responded finally.

“I’m sorry, being locked up it’s…” His voice trailed off, and I could see some of my dread reflected in his eyes.

“Yeah.” This conversation needed to end. “Uhh, I thought the Avengers had disbanded?”

“We had. Until… Until Kamala. Things started back up and running a few months ago.”

“Oh.” I was too busy filing that extra hint on how long I’d been locked up away to answer better. The silence lingered for a while. Not uncomfortably, Dr Banner seemed caught up in his thoughts, and I was busy trying to put together my “lost” time. It was me, strangely, who broke silence, “I don’t know how long they had me in the tank.”

“What?” The words seemed to startle Dr Banner, “How could you…” I watched the colour drain from his face, and I knew he was putting it together, “they kept you suffocating the whole time… you would have…”

“Hallucinated. Blacked out. Screamed, or tried to.” I’d cut him off with these hard truths, I needed to say them to someone. Telling Black Widow made it feel like I was giving up state secrets at an interrogation. Telling Dr Banner felt easier, somehow. “If you’re planning to make me your lab rat now, I’d really rather you just ask.”

“I…” He still looked shocked, I’d go as far as to say mortified, “I won’t run tests on you, not if you don’t want me to.”

“I just want to be left alone, honestly.” Only some of the pleading in my eyes was forced.

“I don’t think that’s safe if AIM is after you.” I hoped none of the apology in his eyes was, “we’ll have to go back in soon. You were right about the ricin. And I’m assuming the food I grabbed us is clean, since you ate it.”

“Or maybe I’m immune,” I said, trying to sound teasing, all it got me was an unsure look. “I’m kidding. It’s clean. Though I don’t know about the rest, I have to be closer to food to tell. There’s a mixed blessing in how much they’ve had to put into the food. Makes the smell stronger…”

“We should get going back,” that sounded like the worst possible idea. But clearly my short interlude of peace was over. I hesitated only a moment before letting Dr Banner pull me to my feet. His hand was warm, and calloused, I wondered if those were the Hulk’s callouses, it didn’t seem like a scientist would be doing anything THAT rough. My wandering thoughts caused our hands to stay together a beat longer than normal, I abruptly let go, scolding myself for thinking so deeply about Bruce Banner’s hands. Finally, I let him lead me back to his lab, where I knew a spider was waiting to bite me.

***

Bruce tried to pretend he wasn’t watching Nat lead Cress out of the lab as he settled in to try and do some work. There were so many AIM files he needed to go through, but instead his mind drifted back to her hand, how soft and breakable it’d seemed, how her eyes had widened a little as their touch had lingered just a moment too long. The moment had made him aware of how soft all of her looked; she was nothing but curves and once that thought had struck him it took far too much effort to shake it.

He pulled his attention back to the report in front of him, only to scroll to a set of blueprints, for the airtight tank. He needed to forward them to Tony, but all he could do was look at them in revulsion. “Hallucinated. Blacked out. Screamed, or I tried.” The words rang through his head and briefly he felt that deep rage welling up inside him. He gripped the edge of his desk hard enough that the metal groaned. The sound pulled him back to where he was. On the helicarrier, filled with good people, not people who deserved to have the Hulk rip through their day. And she wasn’t there anymore, they’d destroyed the tank and he’d made it clear that no one would be running tests unless she consented to them. Even Nat had respected his call on that. The anger started to simmer back to the usual background noise, it was never fully gone.


	4. Chapter 4

Being led around the food storage by Black Widow, who had quickly informed me that “Nat will do”, was somehow a much easier experience than expected. I could always feel her attention on me, keeping a close eye, but for the most part she just let me move. I pointed out a few more cases of supplies that I could “smell” the ricin on. Nat waved people in to collect the food and it was hauled back to the labs. Once I’d finished it I was released to wander, with a warning in no uncertain terms that I was to stay off the control deck, and out of the labs. I set to drifting in and out of the hanger, keeping my anxiety in check as best I could when I was in the common areas, and attempting to drag my claustrophobia back to a manageable level. Before AIM I had gotten it under control. I even took elevators!

I found myself sitting in the rec room with Kamala, as she excitedly filled me in on how the Avengers had gotten back together. It had apparently been a big few months. I wondered if I’d been shoved in the tank before or after they started reforming. I let my mind drift over what I knew about my time locked up, it honestly didn’t do much to answer how long it had been. Kamala was still recounting how Tony Stark had battled his way out of his old family home with just a few of those thruster things he used when Dr Banner walked into the room, her attention immediately shifted to him and she waved him down. He smiled politely and made his way over to sit with us.

“Hey Kamala, dug all of Cress’s deep dark secrets out yet?” An affection I hadn’t seen before touched his eyes as he spoke to the young girl.

“She had me this close to cracking.” I replied to him, indicating a tiny amount with my fingers, “Then you had to distract her. Now no one will ever know.”

“What, I did? Bruce, go away again.” Kamala was quick to keep up, I was honestly a little impressed. I wasn’t sure how I’d ended up sitting around joking with my own personal boogeyman, but apparently the universe had decided to turn inside out. Which was probably also why I found myself a little distracted noticing that he was honestly… handsome. The humour and affection had shoved away his usual tired features and left behind a good looking man with soft brown eyes, that crinkled just a little in the corners when he laughed. I could have slapped myself. I should have thrown myself off the helicarrier and not shifted until I plummeted into the ocean, then just let myself shift into water to drift off with the currents as punishment. Instead I took the coward's way, I attempted to flee.

“I should probably… head back to my room.” I started shifting to my feet, hoping no one would notice the slight blush I could feel creeping up my face.

“Nat said you’re free to roam around,” the words came out of Dr Banner in a rush, “everything we’ve tested so far has been toxic, we know you didn’t lie.”

“Dr Banner…”

“Bruce.” The correction had come out of him so quickly, he seemed a little surprised himself, “Bruce is fine. And please, don’t hide yourself away. So far what you said checks out.”

I was halfway to my feet, and honestly a little unsure where to go from here. He was looking at me so earnestly, and I was trying to not feel guilty for the omissions I’d left in my story, eventually that hopeful look in his eyes won out. I lowered myself back down to the seat and accepted my fate of eating dinner with two super heroes. Once the slight awkwardness of our exchange was over, we settled into a somewhat normal conversation. I answered Kamala’s questions about my life before AIM as best I could. Most of the time I had tried to be normal anyway, so it wasn’t that hard. Bruce corrected me twice more for calling him Dr Banner, all while avoiding answering questions about how he’d spent the time since the Avengers disbanded. Eventually it was late enough that sleep was less an escape and more just a thing we all needed. We walked back towards the sleeping quarters together, and Bruce caught my hand before I vanished into my own.

“Are you going to be alright?” He must have picked up on my confusion because he quickly clarified, “It won’t be too claustrophobic in there?”

Ah.

“I’ll manage.” I could see the concern lighting in his eyes, and it was making it a lot harder to not find him frustratingly attractive. I wanted to inform him in no uncertain terms that he was supposed to be the thing I feared most, not someone I wanted to hold hands with. “If the guards agree to let me out if I need it, to visit the hanger bay, I won’t feel too trapped” I threw a glance to the guards in question, they still seemed determined to pretend nothing I said pierced their perfectly loyal, SHIELD trained ears. Still, Bruce gave me a small, reassuring nod, and I trusted he’d make sure they did. With that, I slipped my hand from his and retreated back into my cage.

****

I had been aboard the helicarrier for about a week now. Each morning I woke up and rushed to the hanger bay, gasping for real air. And each morning, without fail, Bruce would follow behind me, with some kind of breakfast. The sneak never ate first, so I was at least partially convinced he was using me as a poison taster. The joke was on him, even if it had been nothing BUT poison I would have been able to swallow it without issues. Maybe stomach cramps, depending on the poison, but otherwise, nothing!

He turned out to be good company, occasionally asking gently about my healing, he wanted to know how it happened. I couldn’t answer him, not without telling him everything. I wasn’t entirely sure how my past would sit with him. Or the rest of the team, hell, I wasn’t sure Captain America wouldn’t try to arrest me for war crimes. But for now it wasn’t an issue. He never pushed the point and was otherwise content to let the conversation go elsewhere; sometimes answering my questions about himself, or other Avengers. Curiosity was getting the better of me, and it seemed Nat was determined to keep me around a little longer, while they figured this whole poisoning situation out. I was pretty sure she was still suspicious of me, she thought maybe I had planted the poison, and told them about it to try and get into their good graces, but she left it alone mostly.

I didn’t really have anyway to prove that wasn’t the case, and shifting to flee the ship would only make me LOOK guilty now. So, unless I wanted to be on the Avenger’s wanted list, I just had to stay put and hope they’d decide I wasn’t that interesting and dump me in some city somewhere.  
I had become a fixture of the helicarrier, people didn’t even notice me passing by anymore. Guards barely spared me a glance, only a few of them still seemed convinced I was tricking my way into the Avenger’s good graces. I began to wonder if this life might not be so bad, even going so far as to practice speeches in my head, ways I could tell them what I was, who I had been, who had made me, and why. Every time I saw Bruce, I considered talking to him about it. To my dismay the thing that ended up stopping me was how much I liked him. Without realising it, I’d let those weary brown eyes become far too dear to me. Talking to him was the highlight of my day. My deep fear had turned into a very confusing affection.

“We’re leaving on a mission later today, it might be a day or so” I started a little, not at the words themselves, but that he would tell me something like that.

“Oh?”

“I just thought… maybe you should know. Kamala will be coming as well.”

“She’s so young though…”

“She’s a lot more capable than you’d think. Honestly she might be the most capable of us all, we wouldn’t be here without her.”

His eyes always held such genuine affection for the younger girl, that alone made me feel better.

“So, going to smash AIM robots to bits, huh?”

“Well, it’s what I’m best at” the self mocking on his face made me regret my words instantly.

“Bruce, you’re not…” he cut me off with a look and a small shake of his head.

“No, it’s ok.” That weary look in his eyes made my heart hurt a little as he moved to stand, “I better go get things ready.”

With that, he left me, feeling like a terrible jerk. I skulked back to my room, not even noticing the walls as I let the regret and self pity wash over myself. I paced back and forth, debating trying to catch him and apologise before they left. But realistically, you’d never talked about the other guy before. Where did I stand? Where did he stand? An apology without an understanding of what it was for was worthless. Finally, I sighed and gave up on the whole chain of thought. Instead, I decided to do something reckless.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story made it to 100 clicks! I figured I’d celebrate by posting a chapter early.

I spent about an hour getting myself ready for what I was going to do. Some of that time was used going and bringing back a small stash of food, making sure the guards saw; I hoped they’d think I was stocking up to stay in there for a long while. The rest of the time was spent on an internal debate. This wouldn’t get me killed. No one would even notice. Things would be fine.  
Finally, I decided I was ready, and hoped they hadn’t left yet. Changing forms wasn’t hard, not anymore, I’d been doing it for so long that it was as simple as standing or sitting. The solid edges of my body softened, I saw the mist forming around my body and was briefly aware that the mist was me. This transformation was always a firm reminder that what the alchemists had done was only partly science. The other part was magic, my mind and will, things that should not have existed without my form, softened with my body, dispersing into the air around me as I shifted into water vapour. I was still aware of everything, I could move at will, and still “hear” and “see” but it wasn’t the same. Colour did not exist, only the shapes of things around me, sounds were vibrations, but I had spent so much time in this form early on that I could understand everything.

I floated through the vents, searching for the quinjet the Avengers would be taking on their mission. I knew they were leaving soon, I could hear the control room planning and compiling the needed information. It didn’t take too long to track them down and to float on board before all of the Avengers had even arrived. I settled myself along the ceiling, watching from above as they filtered in below me.

“We’re going to free so many inhumans! Maybe they’ll want to join us.” Kamala seemed to be bursting with enthusiasm, her words burst through the air with such delightful vibrations

“We’ll have to get in first. Let’s go over this again…”

I let the words wash past me. I wasn’t coming to help. They didn’t need my help, and if they knew what I was, they wouldn’t want my help. I just wanted to watch, see how they worked, and see the Hulk in action. Maybe even understand why Bruce felt such disdain for being him. The flight was long, and I dozed, along the way. My mind drifting to sleep while my will took over, keeping my form in place as we flew.

A jolt of electricity woke me with a start. Nat looked up in surprise, the electricity had come from the cuffs she wore, and the small crackle that had flashed through my water vapor form wasn’t standard, it seemed. Still, I remained unseen and she quickly focused back on her final equipment check. Kamala was stretching. The way the molecules of her body moved was strange, I briefly wondered if I could copy it, maybe I’d try it out one day. Finally my awareness hit Bruce, his body was shifting, the gamma radiation was causing so many rapid changes it honestly freaked me out a little. It wasn’t like my shifts, they were controlled, conscious things. This was bursts and flairs of violent energy, his body ripped itself from one form to another. Moments later, he was hurling himself out of the jet to the ground below.

“Well, I guess we’re going then.” Stark took off into the air behind him, followed quickly by Nat and finally Kamala, scrambling to get her mask into place as she dropped behind them. I drifted out of the jet and kept close, spreading out to take note of what was happening in the area.

The fight went on as normally as a super hero fight could be expected to. Robots were being smashed to pieces, all around, I was caught by the occasional spark here and there. It was honestly exciting to experience. I started helping in little bits and pieces once we had reached the lab and were inside; dragging oxygen away from fires, flooding flamethrowers, tripping people here and there. I felt sort of like a trickster god, if I could have giggled, I would have.

Then all hell broke loose. I recognised the problem immediately, D.A.R.K terrigen. I shot for it, piecing together what happened, the Hulk had smashed a tank, the tank had been full of the gas and it was rushing out. It hit the Hulk and I felt him recoil. It seeped into his skin, but I barely had time to worry about him, the gas would soon make it to the rest of the team. I knew exactly how damaging it would be, especially to Kamala. The thought of that sweet girl all but imploding as her powers were forced against her filled me with cold dread. I shifted again immediately, the water vapour being swapped for a chemical compound. For the first time since I’d been free I was filled with relief for AIMs torture, a chemical I’d never encountered before I could save myself from. But this, this I knew well, I’d been drowned in it, I could smother it out.

I spread myself thin, the chemicals that formed my mist grabbed hold of the terrigen, they quickly reacted and converted it. The effect would spread along, all I could do now was hope I worked fast enough.

“Hulk!” The shout was shrill and panicked. Kamala.

“Kid, you can’t be here,” Stark had grabbed her and was pulling her back. Good, I wasn’t sure if all the gas was clear yet.

“Get her out, Tony, I don’t know what slowed that gas but I don’t need to find out.”

They were running back, evacuating the building as quickly as possible. I could feel more of the D.A.R.K terrigen floating out of the tank. The gas I had created to nullify it was acting fast, keeping it from spreading, but it wasn’t yet pushing it back. A sound shifted my awareness, a groan, not from the Hulk, not exactly. Bruce was shifting back, he seemed to be stuck halfway. Once I noticed him I couldn’t stop noticing. The terrigen was attacking the gamma radiation that forced his change. My dread returned as I remembered how they’d felt for me at first, sweeping past all that was normal, looking for the thing they considered “wrong”. The gas almost had a will of its own, or it felt like that. It tore whatever was in its path to pieces, searching for something to force out of your system. I felt how far away the others were. Nat was trying to calm Kamala, assuring her that Bruce would be fine, as Stark forced the door shut and did something at a computer. Shit. They didn’t think it would hurt the Hulk, they didn’t fully understand what that gas would do. I shifted to my human form immediately. My desire to make up for my body count was a pain, almost as much of a pain as pretending this was about making up for my body count.

“Bruce” I whispered, dropping to kneel beside him, he looked mostly like himself, but horrible veins of green and black warred across his skin, “Bruce, can you hear me?”

I dropped my hand lightly to his arm, reaching out with my senses to feel what his body was doing. The D.A.R.K terrigen was causing havoc. I wasn’t surprised by that, but I was surprised by how aggressively the gamma radiation fought back at it. My body had acted similarly, but my body was used to fighting foreign chemicals, it knew how and could eventually catch up. Bruce’s was just ripping itself apart. I needed to neutralise the terrigen. Hopefully he wouldn’t be aware enough to remember this.

“I’m sorry, Bruce,” I brushed his hair out of his face, and planted a quick kiss on his forehead without thinking, “this is going to be a bit gross, I promise it’ll work though, you’ll be good as new”

I kept rambling the same way as I acted; shifting one of my nails and making it razor sharp, then cutting into my wrist. I’d already converted my blood, injecting would be better, but I didn’t have the equipment, so instead I lifted his head and tried not to think too hard about it as I let my blood drip into his mouth. He struggled a little in my grip, but now all I needed was to wait and hope.

After a few minutes, the black veins receded. I sighed in relief, but it was swiftly swapped for panic as the gamma took control again, he started to grow, watching him shift into the Hulk in my solid form, where I could truly see him stunned me for a moment. He was nearly fully shifted before I realised I was about to fuck up royally. I shifted just in time. Not my smoothest shift, I was sure any non-Hulk person would have questioned the conspicuous fog sitting in a neat pile, but thankfully it was an error I had time to correct. I moved carefully, spreading myself thin enough to blend as I dropped my density further still. Hulk roared when he realised he had been left alone and shot up towards where the others had left.

I drifted after him carefully, wanting nothing more than to be back on the damn helicarrier. The trip back to the quinjet was mercifully uneventful. Kamala tried to pester Hulk about what had happened, but he was, well, the Hulk, and all she got were annoyed grunts. Nat and Stark spent the trip back discussing the gas, the fact that it had been neutralised by something hadn’t gone unnoticed. And both of them kept throwing looks at the Hulk like they were unsure if he really SHOULD have walked out of that. I hoped they’d end up convincing themselves that it was his Hulk-ishness that had saved him, and not something else. I tried to keep track of their conversation, knowing I might need to know what they believed later on, but I was too busy being angry at the Hulk. That gas had come damn close to killing Kamala, and Bruce. I wondered briefly if I could pull him aside and give him the scolding of a life time. Maybe I’d ask Bruce how much the Hulk understood. The thought made me falter, I couldn’t ask Bruce about the Hulk. I understood a little better now, why Bruce didn’t like being reminded of his other self. I mulled over it all the entire flight back, floating above the people who’s lives I now counted as part of my big tally.

****  
Bruce hated this part, the disoriented feeling he had after coming back from being the Hulk. It just piled on top of his dread about how people looked at him. Disoriented, and hiding from the fear of others. That was his life for the few hours after coming back. But today something was worse. His body felt like it’d been ripped apart. Nat had half filled him in on what had happened, the D.A.R.K terrigen, but he’d lived, so he couldn’t imagine why that would feel any worse than the other injuries the Hulk tanked for him. Tony had slapped him on the back and given him a weary look, then suggested maybe he should test to make sure the gas hadn’t done anything else to his system. How bad had it been?

He staggered to his lab, avoiding eye contact with SHIELD agents as he did so, and made his way over to his work space. He forced the tremor out of his hand as he drew some blood and set it up for testing. The results would be here in the morning. For now, sleep was the priority. He was so focused on keeping himself up right on the way to his room that he didn’t even notice Cress' approach until her hand was on his arm. Bruce startled at the touch, all but wrenching out of her grasp.

“Oh, god, Bruce I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s, uh, no worries. It’s fine, sorry. Just in a world of my own,” she looked just as startled as he felt, her eyes wide as she looked up at him. Somehow he wasn’t too tired to notice Cress chewing her lip nervously, he immediately regretted looking at her lips, and blamed his confused, tired brain for the images that passed through them.

“How was the mission?”

“Standard.” The question made him uncomfortable and he looked away, shifting towards his room a bit. “Sorry, I’m tired. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Sure.” She smiled, and he found himself torn between resentment of the understanding in her eyes and a longing to collapse into her arms for reassurance. Instead he gave her a tight smile in return and made his way back to his room. His warring emotions were forgotten the second he hit his bed and sleep took him.


	6. Chapter 6

“Could I maybe help you in the lab?” the question blurted out of me the next morning as we sat eating breakfast.

“Help?” Bruce Banner’s usual dry wit seemed to have fallen out of the ship at the same time as mine.

“Well,” I rushed on, wishing a bit that I’d never asked, “I’m good with chemicals. I know them inside and out,” he didn’t need to know how true this was, “and I’m good at, uhh, writing reports? Or entering data… or just… making coffee.”

I trailed off lamely, losing steam with each word. He seemed to be considering what I was saying with a strange mix of curiosity and alarm.

“I had thought, or I guess assumed, you were scared of labs?”

“No… I just don’t like people running tests on me… I don’t want to be a guinea pig…”

“I’d… have to talk to the others first.” His brow creased as he looked at me, “But first, can I ask, why?”

“I just feel like I’m freeloading. Unless someone tries to poison this place again… I’m not really helpful?” It wasn’t a lie. I was stuck here, even if I wasn’t ready to think about why, and even if I knew I’d helped on the last mission, that didn’t exactly count, “and even if they do… You guys are testing food as it arrives now. Poison detector isn’t exactly a super useful thing most of the time.”

“Cress, you saved a lot of lives.” His expression had softened a bit, “I’ll talk to the others. Have you ever worked in a lab before?”

The line of questioning was a little risky for me. But not unmanageable, even if I was trying to avoid outright lying, in case I ever had to come clean.

“Yes,” I started slowly, “I have… A couple of different ones. I’m not… I don’t have any official degrees or anything, I don’t want to pretend or make you think I’m a proper doctor, like you are. But I’ve assisted before. And I make good coffee, plus you’ll know it’s always poison free!”

The small quirk of his lips at the joke made my stomach flutter a bit. I wondered now if I should have asked him if I could help in the tech lab instead. I’d only exchanged a few words with Tony Stark since I got here, and most of them were him making an inappropriate joke while I tried to smile politely and excuse myself. Far less risky than Bruce’s distractingly exasperated smiles at my terrible jokes.

“I’ll hold you to that great coffee. Come on, let’s head in. I’ll talk to the others later today and tell you the answer over dinner” his eyes crinkled with amusement as he pulled me to his feet, I shoved down the urge to keep hold of his hand as we walked in, then reminded myself that I was a moron as I forced away the desire to hug him when we parted.

***

Bruce made his way to the control room by way of his lab, wanting to stop though and see how the systems they were putting in place to check food supplies as they arrived were going. So far things had been clean since the first incident, but all the contaminated food had come from different sources and been mixed with clean food, so far none of them could find a pattern. He also stopped to check on his blood sample. There were some strange things coming up, he would need to take some more blood and run a few more detailed tests ones that, sadly, he wouldn’t be able to just set and forget. It was going to be a long day. Sighing, he kept going to the control room.

He walked past the war table, Tony was leaning against one of the terminals there, in a heated discussion with Hank Pym about who knew what, not an argument he wanted to be involved in. Instead he made his way towards the front windows, straight to where Nat and Steve stood chatting. She looked exasperated, but he knew Steve was one of the few people who could really change her mind, even if she still didn’t like it.

“Nat, he’s arriving in the next half hour, and he’s my friend. I am going to ask him to stay, to help.” Steve wasn’t quite pleading with her, but it was the closest Bruce had ever seen him get.

“I know. He’s just so volatile…” She pursed her lips and looked up at Steve, seeming to think. Whatever response she’d been considering, Bruce never got to know. “Bruce, what’s up? We’re not being poisoned again, are we?”

“Oh, not so far. SHIELD are looking into a pattern still.” He had jumped slightly when she addressed him, “I actually wanted to ask you about something.” She kept looking at him expectantly, so he continued, “Cress would like to, uh, contribute. She’d like to help out in one of the labs.”

“Is she a scientist?” Her brows furrowed slightly. Steve was watching their exchange with a mix of amusement and impatience, Bruce would apologise to him for interrupting later.

“No, but we always need data entry, and it’d keep her busy, make her feel less…” Bruce hesitated for a moment, hoping neither of them would read too much into this, “like a freeloader.”

Nat watched him for a few minutes. He did his best not to squirm under her gaze, Black Widow truly was the most intimidating thing on this helicarrier. Finally she sighed and gave a small nod.

“I don’t see why not. We’ll see if Stark is short on people before we figure out where to send her, I’ll talk to him once he’s done having a measuring contest with Pym.” She seemed to have dismissed him without a word, so when she spoke again as he moved to leave, he nearly jumped out of his skin, “Bruce, I really hope she’s worth your trust.”

*****

I spent the day cleaning dishes and watching the news in the recreation room. People were so used to me loitering, looking for any little task to keep myself busy, that they seemed to have started making as many dirty dishes as possible. Not that I was complaining, if I wasn’t busy my brain drifted back to a certain doctor, and those damn eyes and their damn crinkling. And that damn way he managed to sound both tired and enthusiastic when talking about the effects of certain gamma rays on plants. Shit that should have made me run was now making me swoon like a schoolgirl. I was grumbling to myself about how I should have already bailed on this damn sky boat when a voice sent a spike of ice down my spine.

“This place will be more secure without me here.” I made myself turn slowly, as naturally as possible, angling my back to the voice. “You know that, Steve. I only stopped in to tell you what I know…”

“Bucky, I told you, this place is secure even with you here.” Steve Rogers tone was firm, but there was something pleading in it as well, “We haven’t had any attacks since we got into the sky”

“Not a risk worth taking. I’ll be leaving the day after tomorrow.” I let the Winter Soldiers words settle in my brain. Perfect, only two days of avoiding him. I could manage that. And even if he caught a glance of me, he probably wouldn’t realise who I actually was. If he did recognise me I’m sure he’d just think he imagined it. At least I hoped so. Surely he wasn’t still hunting us down. I was pretty sure I was the last one, he’d almost certainly have assumed I was dead by now. I let my brain continue convincing itself until they were well and truly gone. Sometimes it was easy to forget that my not being around the Avenger’s wasn’t JUST because I didn’t want to be around them.

***  
Bruce was focused on the new blood tests, frowning at the strange results. Unknown substances didn’t usually fare well in his blood stream, but these chemicals were doing just fine. They seemed benign, but still worth looking into. Maybe this was what gamma radiation did to D.A.R.K terrigen? If so he wanted to confirm, it had apparently been completely neutralised in his body. He was preparing to send the data to Hank, see if it was something he had heard of or knew anything about, when he found the email from Tony:

_If you want eyecandy in your lab, that’s fine. But I don’t need any data monkey’s, even attractive ones, underfoot in mine. Not unless she’d be working in a nurses uniform?_

Bruce didn’t bother responding to the email. But the image had shoved its way into his head and he knew he wasn’t going to get anything else done today. He groaned burying his face into his hands. As if the SHIELD tank top and those loose pants, that somehow seemed to hug her thighs in a way that made him jealous of them, weren’t bad enough. He desperately tried to ignore the thought of her in a far too short nurses uniform. She was going to be working in here. He couldn’t spend all of his time ogling her, maybe telling her Nat had said no was the better idea. Keep some distance, try to stop thinking about the way his fingers would sink into her thighs. Stop thinking about her thighs in general, and the rest of her body. He swore softly as he realised how screwed he was.


	7. Chapter 7

I was tucked away in my room, trying to keep out of the way of Bucky Barnes, while also ignoring the crushing walls when Bruce came to find me. He’d let himself in and I nearly jumped through the small window I’d be pressing myself against.  
“Fuck, Bruce, I know your hand print opens the door, but knocking?”

“Oh, sorry, I…” He seemed to grasp around a moment looking for a reasonable response, instead he landed on, “sorry. I didn’t think.”

“No harm done,” I tried to shake the tension the small room was causing me, forcing my expression to something I hoped was flirtatious, “next time you want to see me changing though, you should just ask.”

The second the words were out of my mouth one of my hands flew up, as if I could catch them and put them back. A faint blush touched Bruce’s cheeks, and I was certain it was a match for my own. I rushed to change the subject.

“Dinner. It’s time for dinner, I assume. That’s why you’re… here.” My brain flailed around for a more cohesive sentence, “god, this tiny room is killing my brain, shall we?”

He still stood looking a little shocked by the incoherent nonsense coming out of my, so I grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the room. The guards briefly noticed me pulling him by the hand, but if they thought anything of it, they kept it off their face. My nerves were on edge as I beelined for the rec room. Grab food, go to the hanger. Pray he’s not in the hanger. If he is in the hanger, turn into a gas and bail. Hide yourself from the world forever and ever, because he’ll tell everyone who you are, and they’ll all think you were here for bad reasons the whole time.

“Cress,” Bruce’s hand tightened on mine, jolting me out of my spiralling thoughts, as he pulled me to a stop, “Cress, how long did you shut yourself in there, you’re panicking.”

I looked at him, dumbfounded for a moment, struggling with the concept of words and communication. He was clearly waiting for an answer, the look he was giving me was so full of concern I nearly laughed. Here I’d thought this man was the boogeyman, and now here I was, genuinely considering bursting into tears and throwing myself into his arms. Well, assuming he caught me, maybe he’d pivot out of the way. The thought caused me to imagine myself, looking like I was in a telenovela, trying to fall into my lover's arms, only to miss, and trip down some stairs, to play in my head. Now I really was stifling a giggle.

“I’m sorry,” I said, starting to giggle properly now, “I just pictured something dumb. I was being panicky. I really am sorry” I tried to move a hand to cover my mouth as the giggles kept coming, but it was still firmly in Bruce’s grip.  
My giggles began to die down, replaced with embarrassment, but he held onto my hand, swapping to the lead, skipping straight through the rec room and into the hanger. I expected him to take us to the big door so we could sit like usual, but instead he pulled me down a staircase and back into the main part of the ship. I’d never been down this corridor, guards always stood at the entrance, and I just assumed they’d stop me. He pressed his hand to a scanner and another set of doors with H.A.R.M above them opened. He walked directly past a guard who looked up at us with interest, but I guess questioning someone who can turn into a giant green rage monster wasn’t on his list of things to do, so he didn’tsay anything. A final door opened and he pulled me into a small, white room.

“JARVIS, run program 328B.”

There was a moment after Bruce spoke when nothing happened, but then, the walls seemed to shoot outwards. I clung to his hand, moving in closer, frightened, but only for a moment. The room transformed from sterile and white, into an open green field. I could feel the grass under my feet. Tony Stark, it seemed, was even more talented that I had imagined. A breeze blew across my bare arms, I’d taken to wearing SHIELD training clothes while on board, since I had no clothes of my own. I gasped, taking in the sight, and the feeling. My nerves were easing by the second, no more walls, constantly closing in, no roof, threatening to collapse on me. The silence sat on us for a few moments as my muscles relaxed. I realised I was still holding Bruce’s hand. I decided to pretend I’d still forgotten.

“We use this room for training, usually.” Bruce broke the silence.

“Oh.” I wasn’t really sure what else to say, my brain hadn’t been this at ease since before AIM got me, even when sneaking along on the mission, I’d been too focused on the team to really enjoy the open space.

“I was thinking we could, uh, have a picnic?” He looked a little embarrassed as he went on, “but you seemed so stressed, I didn’t think about stopping for food.”

“I’m not really that hungry, can we stay here for a bit?”

“Of course.” He released my hand as he moved to sit. It felt cold and empty where he had been.

“How was your day?” The small talk felt strange and forced. But I wasn’t sure what else to fill the silence with. I’d moved to sprawl on my stomach, the grass felt wonderful beneath me, I wondered again how the hell Tony Stark had done this.

“Busy.” A weary smile settled on his face, “I’ve been digging through some data we got from AIM. Trying to figure out some things about their terrigen gas.”

“Ah.”

“The others, or at least, Nat, has agreed you can come into the lab. Tony said he doesn’t need anyone else ‘underfoot’ in his, but I’d be happy for you to come help us out. Plus, you owe me some amazing coffee” that infuriating crinkle appeared next to his eyes, and I firmly ordered my brain to stop picturing my hands touching his face.  
“Thank you.” I sat myself up right and hugged him. He tensed slightly at the touch, but moments later he was returning it. Bruce’s arms were warm, and secure. We stayed like that, neither of us pulling away, for probably a moment longer than was just friendly. When we parted, the breeze that I had earlier thought calming, seemed too cold. The embrace had left me sitting as close to him as possible and my eyes swept over his face, I wasn’t sure what I was searching for, but what I found was longing, and a bit of regret. Before I could think better of it my hand was moving to rest on his cheek.

“Thank you,” I said again, keeping my voice low, noticing the way his eyes flickered to my lips, “for always looking out for me.”

“Happy to.” His response was barely a breath.

Then I kissed him. I hadn’t even considered the action, I just did it, and the moment my lips met his I was so glad I was not a sensible human being. There wasn’t even a beat before he was kissing me back, one of his hands was cupped around the back of my neck, the other held him steady on the ground. I shifted closer and things deepened, my mouth parted and I felt him sigh into the kiss. He barely parted from my lips as he moved, settling himself and pulling me to straddle his lap. My fingers wove their way into his hair and a quiet moan escaped me. All I could think about was his lips, and the way he smelled like spiced vanilla, some distant part of my mind wanted to ask him if that was a shampoo or a cologne; but for now, that part wasn’t important. His hands slid down my sides, shifting my top up slightly, I shivered at the feel of those calloused hands on my skin. Then the world turned white around us, soft grass turned into cold metal, and we broke apart with a start. There was a moment when I was disoriented, we were both breathing heavily and I was still straddling his lap, his hands still planted on my waist.

“Oh no…” the words slipped out of him, sounding frustrated, “we better stand.”

I was confused as he moved me gently from his lap and pulled me to my feet beside him. Not a moment too soon, it seemed, the door we had come in, slid open. And we were faced with Tony Stark, in full Iron Man armour, with his helmet tucked under his arm, looking very amused at us.

“Sorry kids, this room is for training,” his eyes sparkled like a kid on Christmas who’d just opened the best present ever, “not make out point.”

I had never wanted to shift so badly in my life. But I somehow felt THIS was not the right moment for them to find out what I could do. Instead I just had to put up with the blood rushing to my face. Bruce was apparently used to this sort of behavior, he managed to roll his eyes and look exasperated even while he turned redder by the moment.

“We were having a picnic,” even to me, Bruce’s excuse sounded weak.

“Without food?”

“I wasn’t hungry,” I interjected.

“Oh, I noticed. Seemed like you were thirsty though.” Tony’s delight only grew as he spoke, and I could hear the laugh he was suppressing. His face was all but twitching trying to keep it at bay.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re hilarious, we’re leaving already…” Bruce took my hand and was leading me from the room before he’d even finished talking. I did my best to ignore Tony’s mocking look as we slipped past him and out the door. The guard looked up at us as we kept moving past him and out into the corridor. The second we were in the relative private again, I burst out laughing. Bruce was giving me a look that was almost horrified, but it only lasted for a moment, then he was laughing too.

“Bruce, I’m sorry, I…” I didn’t really know what I was apologising for.

“That wasn’t exactly a single person activity,” those crinkles were back near his eyes, “I honestly think I’d rather you weren’t apologising for it. Though… Tony won’t let us live it down any time soon.”

“Oh god.” I felt dread well up, “will he tell everyone?”

“With him, who knows. He’ll at least black mail me with it.” Some of the humour had faded to a tight smile, “but it won’t really matter, not unless you have taken a secret chastity vow.” He took my hand gently, fitting his fingers between mine, “I really hope that’s not the case.”

“That’s definitely not the case…” heat was creeping back up my face as I looked at our hands, “so, should we go actually eat?”


	8. Chapter 8

We talked only a little over dinner, things had shifted between us. I could tell Bruce was trying to figure out new boundaries, without wanting to openly question things. And I was distracted getting myself ready to tell him what I’d held back, not all of it. Who made me and what happened shortly after was a secret I needed to keep to myself for a while longer, but I didn’t want to hide what I really was from him, it felt wrong. It felt like I was tricking him.

After we finished eating he moved to part ways with me, a small smile and a touch of that longing from earlier softened his face. I caught his hand and resigned myself to whatever happened next.

“Wait, Bruce, can I talk to you, privately?”

There was only a small moment of surprise before he smiled at me again, I prayed I wasn’t about to stop him ever looking at me like this again.

“Of course, did you want to come into my room, or..?”

“Your room sounds great.” If I kept blushing this much the blood was going to get stuck in my face, I just hoped no one was reading too much into me following me back into his room. Somehow I could imagine Tony suggestively waggling his eyebrows at us, like we were a couple of teenagers sneaking into a closet.

Bruce’s room was so neat and subdued. The desk was perfectly organised, as were all the shelves. The only sign that indicated that it wasn’t some kind of IKEA show room was a pile of tone clothes, I knew right away what they were from, and wondered for a moment why he kept them. Probably best not to ask; at least not while I was keeping my own secrets.

“There’s not much…” he gestured vaguely around the room, “to it. I mean, you’ve seen how these rooms are, I guess you know.”

The slight awkwardness that came over him was honestly too endearing. I briefly considered skipping telling him and just climbing him like a tree instead. The mental image of my legs wrapped around him forced me to look away for a moment while I pulled myself back together, and my brain back on task. Best just plunge in, I decided.

“So, uh, I kinda… failed to tell you something.” The dread that passed over his face as I spoke made my heart cold, “not you personally you. The Avengers you. Or I guess kinda you and Nat, since she’s the only one who questioned me… But I want to tell you. Will you hear me out?”

“Ok, should I be sitting?” Even as he tried to make it sound like he was joking, I could see how guarded he’d become. This was a terrible idea. I started to pace back and forth.

“If you want.” I shrugged slightly, and he moved to his desk chair, “It’s not… bad stuff? I have more powers than just detecting toxins is all.” The confession came out of me in a rush, and I wondered if it had even sounded like separate words. “The toxin thing is almost a byproduct of… the other things.”

I looked at him, trying to figure out if I’d blown it or not. His face remained guarded. I wanted so badly for him to react, but he was giving my nothing, so I elaborated as best I could.

“A long time ago some people… experimented on me. Not just me, I guess, there were others. But now it’s just me. I think they wanted to see if they could make someone immune to various toxins. It worked, sort of. Instead of becoming immune I became…” I grasped around, looking for a word, or phrase that would sum it up, “they called me a panacea. A cure all. I’m not really immune. My body just knows how to change it’s celular make up into other things. If I get poisoned, I just turn my…” I stopped for a steadying breath, not looking at him this time. I needed to get through this, and if he was disgusted, I wasn’t ready for that, “I turn my blood into an antidote. I can turn my blood into basically any chemical, or compound I want. As long as I’ve had contact with it before. And there’s not really anything I haven’t been in contact with. There’s more as well…”

I stopped now, looking to him, praying I wouldn’t see revulsion. Or betrayal, betrayal might be worse. I couldn’t read the mix of expressions on his face, only one really jumped out at me, he looked sad.

“You didn’t want any tests run on you.” I was a little surprised at that response, though I don’t know what I expected. “Someone used you as a guinea pig and you were worried I’d do the same.”

“Oh, Bruce, I know you now.” I walked over to him, taking his hand and all but crying when he didn’t pull away, “I’d created a stupid image in my head of scientists. I know better now.”

“Who were they?” There was something harder in his expression now, even as I felt his thumb move to gently stroke my hand.

“I’m not ready to tell you all of that yet…” He frowned at the response, but I pushed on, “I will, I promise. But that part… that parts a bit harder. Plus, I still have to tell you the rest.” I stopped again to try and read his reaction. The hardness was still there, but he didn’t say anything else, “ok, so, because I can uh, change my cellular make up, I can shift… I can basically turn my body into a gas, or a liquid, or I guess anything. Though I’ve only tried certain things. Water vapour, water, some other stuff…” 

His eyebrows had shot up, and his hand had stilled, but he hadn’t pulled away, and I prayed that was a good sign.

“How…” He seemed to try and find a better way to ask the question, I suspect he failed, “how? That shouldn’t be possible.”

“I can show you, if you’d like.” Part of me hoped he’d say no, but I wanted to be as candid as I possibly could with him.

“Maybe, let’s save that for when my brain wraps around… all the rest.” He squeezed my hand and looked up at me, “this doesn’t change things. I wish you’d told us immediately, and I’m not sure I really understand why you didn’t. But I know sometimes we don’t ask for these things, and it’s nice to be able to pretend they aren’t there.” His eyes flicked briefly to the torn clothes.

The silence pulled out a beat longer than I would have liked, but I’d run out of things to say, and I didn’t want to crowd him. The truth stretched between us now, and even though his hand was still around mine, I could feel the gap growing. This doesn’t change things. Those words still rang in my head, but I wasn’t sure he had meant them. It was me who caved, the weakness and fear pushing in around me until I broke.

“I should give you space for this.” His eyes shot up to me as I spoke, like I’d pulled him from a dream.

“Wait, Cress…”

“Bruce, you’ve been very patient with me tonight.” I took a steadying breath so I could continue, “As far as I know you haven’t even called security to have me locked up. Now it’s my turn, I’m going to go to bed, and tomorrow I’ll meet you at the lab, ok?”

He nodded, despite the frown forming on his face, I lingered only a moment to see if he’d speak, or move, try again to stop me. But he didn’t, so I went back to my tiny cage, readying myself to slip into the mild panic those walls draped over me like a robe. Somehow Bruce’s room hadn’t seemed so crushing.

**********  
I slept fitfully. Part of it was my normal fears, the crushing walls, but more than that was a new fear. Someone in this place knew what I could do, they knew I’d kept it to myself. I was waiting for the door to be kicked in, Black Widow would bust through. If anyone could figure out how to kill me, it was her. Then there was the Winter Soldier. My fear of him ran deeper than the fear I used to have of Bruce Banner and his lab. I fell in and out of nightmares. That metal hand clamping around my throat as he squeezed. I couldn’t heal and shift to safety at the same time. I gasped for breath and tried to beg for forgiveness, tried to explain that I hadn’t wanted to do that. To BE that. But he didn’t care, and he wouldn’t listen. And I’d put myself into his line of fire.

Morning was announced by a knocking on my door. My stomach dropped, this moment was it, the penny was dropping. When I finally found the will to go to the door, I found Bruce. Looking a little weary, and unsure. But still, he was there. We went to breakfast together, things were slightly tense, but I was surprised at how normal it was overall. We ate, talking only a little, and about things that really didn’t matter at all. I was grateful for the reprieve.

When we finished eating he suggested a tour of the lab. I nodded, and moved to follow, the distance between us was so wide it hurt. I’d been alive long enough to learn how to be patient though, I could wait for this to pass, and work to make this up to him. The lab was big, but still contained to a room, and a sort of loft, which made the tour quite fast. He showed me which station he’d have me at, and where his station was. He spent far too much time apologising that I’d be stuck typing up data, from what I’d seen so far it was related to the food being poisoned, so at least I knew the topic. I finally had to try and shoo him away so I could get to it.

“Bruce, really, this is fine. I’m just glad to help.”

“One more thing. Have you ever… had contact with terrigen? In any form?”

I’d been waiting for this all morning, but still, I stiffened at the question.

“I have, yes. Both kinds.”

“Do you know what can neutralise them.”

“I do.”

“Would gamma radiation have any affect on it? From my research it shouldn’t, not to neutralise at least, but…”

“Bruce…” I’d somehow ended up with Bruce Banner, who had more PHDs than I had sense, asking me for help with his chemistry homework, I figured coming clean was for the best, “That was me. I snuck out, I followed you, I got the terrigen out of your system.”

“You… what?” He was looking at me with a mixture of dread and confusion, not quite the revulsion I feared, but just a hop, skip and a jump away. “How? What?”

“I should have told you, I would have told you last night. But I’d already dumped so much information, and then…”

I held my hands up hopelessly, I pleaded with whoever was listening to not let this cost me more of his trust.

“You snuck out? And followed us on a mission.” His brows had furrowed and I hoped it was just in concentration, not in anger. “You’re why the mist didn’t make it to Kamala. Nat said it seemed like there was something blocking the mist. You can…”

“Change into different forms. I wasn’t solid while I was there. Mostly.”

He had taken a seat next to me and was looking at me intently. I reached out and took his hand, all but holding my breath. He didn’t pull away. So I told him what had happened. He winced when I explained the blood, and I apologised again, but he never pulled his hand out of mine, and that would have to do for now.

“Cress… what if it had gone wrong.”

“It didn’t, I-I knew what I was doing.”

“Yeah? You know how gamma radiation reacts with… however your powers work.”

“I know how it reacts with chemicals. It’s not some otherworldly magic, it’s science. Mostly.”

“Mostly?” he looked a little frustrated.

“There might be a little bit of… Not science… in how it all happens. But the chemicals themselves are all on the level.” I tried to make it funny, but really it was just me desperately smiling at him, as if that would soften the blow somehow. He didn’t look convinced. Hell, I probably didn’t look convinced.

“Would you let me run tests on the chemical that neutralises terrigen?”

“Do you mean… you want to run tests on my blood?”

“Well,” I could see how uneasy asking this was making him, “yes. Cress, I’m sorry, but we need to be able to do something about terrigen, if I could look at the compound you use to neutralise it…”

“How will you explain getting that compound?” The question made him falter slightly. Panic was sweeping in and I could feel myself closing off from him. Some logical part of my brain knew what he was asking was reasonable, and doing this would not mean being locked in a test tube forever. My muscles were tense as I pulled away from him.

“We can tell everyone what you can do,” He reached out for me again, gently, his eyes placating, like he was worried I’d run, or bite him, any moment now, “they’ll understand. Plus, if you’re interested, you might be able to help us on missions.”

“I’m not a lab rat or a weapon. I’m just a person.” The words were rushed and my tone was pitching up with every moment that passed. It was a battle to keep my breathing steady as the logical part of my brain that remained and kept trying to tell me I was well and truly overreacting, was drowned out by my own use of the words “lab rat”. Some distant third part of my brain was laughing at the idea that I had done this to myself. I spiralled down more and more, Bruce was still calmly reassuring me, his whole body lined with concern, but I could barely hear him. Seconds, that felt like hours passed and some words snuck into my brain.

“Tell me 5 things you see.” I started slightly at the command, but responded falteringly.

“You. Benches. Computers. Plants. Stairs.” With each word I was pulled back into where we were. I even started to feel a bit embarrassed at my melt down. Bruce pushed on though, he managed to make me name things I could feel before I convinced him we didn’t need to go through all the senses.

“I promise, we won’t do any tests until you’re comfortable with me doing them, and when we do, it’ll be only for as much as you allow.” At some point in my panic spiral he’d taken my hand and still had it firmly grasped in his. “For now though, why don’t we go talk to Nat, explain things, and then you can decide how much, if at all, you want to be involved here.”

I nodded and squeezed his hand. I was back to almost calm, but I still wasn’t sure how well I’d hold onto that if I started talking about people running tests on me. I would let myself trust Bruce though. He was a scientist, but he knew what it was like to be treated as less than human, and he wasn’t an alchemist.

I felt him studying my face for a moment before he squeezed my hand in return. He made a quick call, organising a time to have a late lunch with Nat. He made it sound so relaxed, as if I wasn’t about to admit to the world’s most successful spy and assassin that I’d held information from her, and not even small stuff, stuff that she probably would see as a big deal. This time the weight that built on me wasn’t panic, no, I’d accepted this fate, panic had no place here, this time it was just dread. No work got done the rest of our time in the lab. Bruce suggested we read over the poison reports, rather than stewing on what was to come, but all I could do is stare at the words and try to will my eyes to comprehend them. I failed.

Nat’s arrival nearly made me jump out of the seat I was in. I hadn’t expected her to pick us up. Her expression was as unreadable as always. I wondered briefly if anyone anywhere had figured out how to read her, or if she had killed them before they had the chance. Something must have shown on my own face, because she raised an eyebrow at me in question.

“No sleep over last night? Is Dr Banner really that proper?”

The question threw me off and I saw Bruce’s expression darken slightly beside her.

“Nat, this isn’t about Cress and I not feeding the gossip mill.”

“You think that didn’t feed it? Plus, Tony can feed it just fine without you guys doing anything else.” Her eyes twinkled in delight and I could tell she’d noticed my reaction. I was kind of glad, maybe this good mood of hers would last. Bruce sighed in resignation, it would have been a lie to say I wasn’t slightly relieved that he wasn’t denying anything between us.

“So, is this a meet the parents lunch?” she leaned herself against my desk, so casual and relaxed, and yet I’d never been so aware of how many ways a person could (try) to kill me.

I was honestly a little baffled at how relaxed this banter was. I figured it was time to risk that acceptance and just hope I could shift and be out of here fast enough if this went south. So, I interrupted them.

“Actually, I need to come clean with you.” The words came out in a rush and Nat’s eyebrows rose as she looked at me, inviting me to continue, “I withheld the extent of my powers. I honestly just wanted to leave and hoped the less you thought I could do, the quicker you’d want rid of me. But here I am, still, and I can help, if you want me to. I’m not entirely sure I want to help, but I should.”

“Are you going to get to the part where you explain anytime soon,” her words were joking, but I’d noticed the shift in her posture, the way her gun was slightly more visible.

“I don’t know…” I stammered, searching for how to explain, “give me a moment, this is never fun to explain…”

I paused a moment to gather my thoughts, before I finally pushed on. I told her what I had told Bruce the night before. I explained what I was and what I could do. I flinched at the steel in her eyes when I told her I’d followed them on the mission, then finally explained that I could provide a substance that would neutralise DARK terrigen, but that I would not be made into a full time lab rat. Once I finished talking I waited, I let her assessing eyes sweep over me, I only flinched a little when she shifted, her hand moving closer to that damn gun. She hadn’t shot me yet, but I wasn’t sure if she’d locked herself into that choice or was still debating.

“Nat… All of us have hidden what we can do at one time or another.” Nat’s eyes snapped to Bruce as he broke the silence, “She’s willing to help us stop AIM. She saved the kid’s life on that mission!”

It had been a very long time since I’d felt like a child, I honestly usually walked around the world feeling slightly aloof and above it all. But standing here, watching these 2 forces of nature glare at each other, I felt like a child whose parents couldn’t agree on a punishment.

“So,” Nat speaking jolted me back to reality, “who else are we telling?”

“I… you’ll let me decide who to tell?” I was struggling to comprehend the words she’d said, I had accepted my fate, I had braced for being locked up, forced to reveal all I knew, or at least have her fill everyone in. I hadn’t prepared for this, I simply didn’t have an answer.


	9. Chapter 9

Nat had left me to consider what I wanted to do. I could tell she was pissed, and I suspected she was allowing me this freedom because of Bruce, but I was grateful none the less. Bruce and I worked in the lab the rest of the day, silence stretched between us, whispering doubts into my mind, making me question what I’d done. It was an effort to even complete the easy data entry tasks Bruce had given me. Each entry I wrote saw my brain pulling further from the task.  
Write a page.  
Is Bruce mad?  
Write a line.  
Will Nat really let me decide who to tell?  
Write a word.  
Should I leave?  
Is it too late?  
I could never come back.

I knew that. You couldn’t leave a place where people knew you, without telling them, and expect to be able to come back at any time. Plus, if Bruce really thought about what I was, there was a chance he’d realise what I could really do. Right now his brain was too focused on the positives, just like when he’d tried to make another super soldier. Too busy thinking about how much good could be done, not enough time realising just how much potential for damage there was. The keyboard in front of me seemed so insurmountable, every word was a struggle now, they stretched out on the paper in front of me, while everything I’d typed seemed to shrink in. Sisyphean, that was the word. A hopeless task.

Some quiet part of my brain tried to whisper that I was falling into panic. Not my usual kind of panic, something a bit deeper and quieter. But more insidious, it hid from those around me. Bruce wasn’t turning to me, wasn’t offering me a reprise. I looked up at him feeling more of the crushing weight push around me. He was so focused on work, standing at a high desk. I watched for a moment as he rolled his shoulders, like he could feel me looking. His body was tense, but something about him still seemed so… calm. I supposed this place, for him, felt safe. I tried to imagine pulling some of that calm towards myself. Pictured it smothering my own panic. In a way, it worked. It wasn’t perfect, nothing really was.

*****

Nat let us go on like this for a few days. I got more used to the work, and my fears began to shrink again. I’d been thinking carefully about who should know about what I could do. And come to the conclusion all of them should. Telling only a few of them would just risk them finding out anyway, and then there would be friction. And questions about what some were keeping my secrets. It wasn’t worth the potential for drama. Nat seemed unsurprised by my answer, she also seemed disappointed when I told her I wasn’t interested in taking part in field work, instead I’d help Bruce make more of them chemicals that could clear away terrigan.

“I could train you.”

“I’m… not really worried about not being trained, Nat. I just… don’t think I belong on the battlefield.”

Her frown made me feel a little guilty, but once had been enough. Too many things could go wrong. In the end, she nodded curtly and told me to follow her. She took me to the war room, it only took a look from her for all the non-essential. Crew to make themselves busy elsewhere on the ship. All the Avengers were gathered, throwing me a spectrum of looks from suspicious to curious. Except for Bruce, who was just doing his best to look reassuring. We had drifted back to normalcy (or what counted as normal for us) over the last few days, and the weight his presence lifted from my shoulders was palpable.

“We need to talk. Cress has been keeping some secrets” she threw a look Tony, who had moved as if to speak, silently suggesting that he shut up and listen, “but we’re all going to let that go and focus on the ways she’s going to help us now.”

Her gaze shifted to me, it was apparently my turn. No long intro’s here, just straight to the meat of the discussion. I took a steadying breath, looking at Bruce and getting more of that calm reassurance. I began my explanation, and was almost immediately cut off. I stiffened at the voice. It had been stupid of me to forget such an important factor, such a massive risk to being all ‘go team Avengers!’.

“So, either the Avenger’s are committing war crimes and gassing people now. Or you’ve had a very dangerous weapon just sneak onto your ship.”

“Wintersoldat” the german felt clunky after such a long time. I turned to face him in time to watch Bucky Barnes train his gun on my head. Distantly I thought I heard Captain Rogers exclaim his name, and Bruce making a strangled sound of alarm; some part of me knew that was the biggest issue here. “Any chance you’d give me time to explain?”

“Cap, if you’re friends can’t behave they can’t come to play anymore.” Nat’s words were light, but I could hear the edge, and I was sure if I risked looking at her, she’d be inching towards her own gun.

“I’m not in the habit of giving war criminals time to explain.” Barnes seemed as focused on me as I was on him, all the others were set dressing, easy enough to tune out. Though there was something pulling at my mind that I knew I should be focusing on.

“Well, glass houses and all that…” once again, my sparkling wit was earning me nothing but more contempt. I already knew I couldn’t phase before he shot me. Bucky Barnes had spent a lot of time hunting down people like me. Sealing them up, stopping them existing as effectively as you can with an immortal.

“Don’t compare us. I… had no choice.” Deep regret flicked in his eyes, I wondered if my own ever mirrored it, “you threw a temper tantrum. You all did.”

“What are you talking about, Bucky?” The Captain’s voice sliced through, the way only the words someone who was used to being in charge could. “Cress hasn’t hurt anyone. And I suspect, she was about to tell us the rest…”

I couldn’t pull my eyes off of Barnes, but I could feel everyone watching me, waiting for an explanation I didn’t really have. It’s one thing to tell people you aren’t normal. It’s another to tell them you aren’t normal while someone else points out you’re actually a monster.

“She was there, Steve. She belongs to them, Redskull might as well have commissioned her in person” the words were all but a snarl, I was a little grateful he was being so unclear, it might give me a chance to still tell my own side of the story, “I’m just putting her where she should have been years ago. I’m cleaning up a mess we left years ago.”

“Barnes…” I jumped at the sound, it had been almost a growl. A moment later I realised the source, my blood ran cold, Bruce wasn’t happy. Then I did the stupidest thing possible, I turned to check if he was ok. The loud bang of the gun would run through my brain for weeks, alongside the pain of my head exploding from the impact. Some far off, calm, part of me knew this was fine. Even from this I could heal, was already healing. But that part was crushed beneath the roaring in my ears and the darkness that was beginning to smother me. All hell was breaking loose, but I was busy sinking deeper into the screaming darkness.


	10. Chapter 10

Hearing Cress’s secret had been alarming. But somehow the idea of her telling the others was even worse. Bruce wasn’t too proud to admit he had some feelings for her, he also wasn’t too proud to admit that sometimes his baser instincts were a little… stronger (and bigger and greener) than needed. He sighed as he walked into the war room, wondering if he couldn’t just call this off and keep her as a lab assistant, no need to share any more details with the other Avengers. Another, snarkier, part of his brain wondered if he could also chuck her over his shoulder and take her back to a cave to keep as property.

Tony was leaning against the table, frowning as he dragged holograms around. For someone who acted so carefree, he was almost incapable of going somewhere without bringing some work with him, even if it was just another room. Steve was quietly chatting with Thor, and the two men gave him a quick nod as he moved to lean against a railing to wait. Nat was always on time, so he knew it wouldn’t be long, the tension was building in the air. Some from the Avengers around him, some from the crew who were rapidly trying to finish urgent work so they could flee once Nat arrived. Kamala bounced into the room and immediately trotted over to him, her face was questioning as she hoisted herself onto the railing next to him to sit. She started asking them all in rapid fire, not giving him any chance to answer. “What’s this about?”

“Are we going on another mission?”

“When is Nat getting here?”

“Did Tony get into trouble again?”

“Is Cress ok?”

Bruce flinched slightly at the last question. He stayed quiet and she quickly realised she wasn’t getting anything out of him and settled into her own, sullen quiet. It wasn’t long before the doors opened, Nat walked into, Cress trailed reluctantly behind her and unneeded crew began to disappear. Things started out fine. Cress had clearly explained what she could do to more people than just himself and Nat. The explanation began to flow out of her to the same beat at the previous two times. Only this time, it was abruptly cut off. Her eyes went wide as Bucky Barnes started to speak. Fear glinted in them, and briefly he thought they flashed in his direction, pleading silently.

Bruce recognised what must have been the German word for “Winter Soldier” as Cress turned to face Bucky. His blood went cold when the soldier pulled his gun and the cold turned to a roaring as he pointed it unwaveringly at her head. He forced the fear back down, knowing how easily fear could turn to anger.

“Bucky…” Steve sounded hesitant.

“Any chance you’d give me time to explain?” How did she sound so calm?

“Cap, if your friends can’t behave, they can’t come to play anymore.” Nat also sounded calm.

How were they all so damn calm? He imagined throwing Bucky off the side of the helicarrier. Was that his own thought though? Bruce flexed his hands in and out of fists, trying to regain control. Bucky had spoken, he’d missed it. Cress had said something too. All he’d picked up was the tone. That forced humour she used to mask panic.

“You threw a temper tantrum. You all did.” It took a moment to realise Bucky wasn’t talking to him, the words were still only for Cress. His Cress, who he liked, who the one he didn’t like was pointing a gun at. More words went past him, he didn’t bother taking them in. He could only think of pushing away the green that was creeping into his vision. The one he didn’t like was going to hurt the one he did like. The others weren’t stopping him. If they didn’t, he would. Hulk could stop him. Bruce Banner might care about this ship, but the Hulk only cared about hurting the one he didn’t like, and helping the one he did.

“Barnes…” Her head snapped to him at the noise, the concern lining it pulled him back to himself, but it only lasted an instant. Her head exploded. His blood burned green through him and the Hulk shoved Banner aside. Her blood looked horribly red against the green of his skin. There was a lot of screaming going on, but Hulk was only focused on one thing. He needed to throw the one he didn’t like out a window. He surged forward and the bad one dodged to the side. Before he had a chance to turn and grab him, another one had appeared. The big lightning one. Hulk knew this one was a problem, a problem he didn’t have time for. Banner needed to fix the one he liked, he was pretty sure he could do that. So he needed to get rid of the one he didn’t like and then let Banner come back.

The lightning one caught his fist as it crashed towards him. Hulk yelled in his face and tried to grab for him with his other hand, but the stretchy one he liked had already grabbed that hand and was pulling him back. He didn’t like the idea of hurting her, so all he could do was try to shake her off.

“Hulk, bud, we need you to stop now” It was the metal one. Even Banner didn’t really like listening to that one, “we aren’t going to let Barnes leave now. Not until we know what happened, but if you keep raging around like that, you’re going to crash this ship, with all of us on it.”

He roared at the metal one, and something caught his eye. He was still being held in place by the lightning one and the stretchy one, but his eyes snapped to wear the one he liked was. The fast, scary one was kneeling next to her. She was talking to the blue and red one, his shield now held between the two women and Hulk.

“Is she healing?”

“I… I think so? It’s hard to say when the back of her head is in pieces. I’m scared to move her incase I fuck it up…”

"I need to get a hold of Bucky and find out what the hell he was thinking." The blue and red one looked around the room. Hulk followed his gaze to the bad one, trying to catch his breath, "If he really does know something about Cress, maybe he knows if she'll heal..."

"Seems like he was kinda hoping she wouldn't, Steve." the fast, scary one moved around the one he liked, her hands gently pressing at the wound. Hulk growled a quiet warning, and she called out a reply to him, "no worries big guy... I'm trying to help. You could do us all a solid and calm a big, I'm sure Banner could help her more..."

Hulk was not dumb. He knew what those words meant. But he also knew he should still stop the bad one then come back for the one he liked. He focused his efforts back on the lightning one, then threw him across the room.

  
*****

Something important was happening. 

Something bad. 

Maybe I could help?

I had to try and help. I pulled myself up, I had been sprawled on the floor. Where was this? Things were a mess. People were on the ground all around me. None of them were conscious, I wondered if they were alive. Somewhere in my brain a tally started as I looked around at them. For now though I needed to hurry, I had to get out of here. I remembered my desire to help, but it was currently being smothered by an all consuming need to escape this place. I knew this was my chance and I might not get another. I wondered if the others (which others?) had gotten out. There was shouting somewhere. I started to move, racing out corridors, searching for outside. Everywhere I went there were more people on the ground. Some I recognised (from the rec room?) others’ faces looked too burned and swollen. Finally I found the door. I burst out into the smoke and haze, the ground (not clouds?) was so muddy below me. I streamed into freedom. The others would surely follow.

Out here was more shouting. The wrong shouting. Something was still wrong, didn’t I need to help? Or wasn’t I scared of that? No… I wasn’t scared of that anymore. Probably because I was escaping (wrong). I tried to focus on the now (which was now though?) but my brain was so scattered, fuzzy. No, not my brain. I was scattered. I’d shifted. Harsh yellow gas surrounded me, was me. Not just me though. That’s where the others were. We were so full of hate, and fear. A dangerous mix. There were men here. I was no longer near the facility. I didn’t know how far we had traveled after leaving, all I knew is we wanted to ruin this place (we’ll regret it). These men were evil (not all of them) and we were getting our revenge (no). Their skin bubbled at our touch (stop), they gasped for breath (please, don’t), some dropped to their knees, retching as we smothered them (this is a mistake); my tally ticked up (forgive me), but we raged onwards.

Someone else was raging.

That was important. 

So so important. 

Their rage was almost as bad as ours.

We had covered so much ground. Men were curled on the ground in our wake (what have we done). Fear and anger still pulsed through my veins. At the edge of a field, we stopped. Sunlight streamed through the particles of gas that formed me. Slowly the others separated, drifted in different directions. I needed to stop though (no, you need to help), stop and feel the sunlight. I could still hear shouting as I formed myself back into a human, war was never quiet (there’s no one left back there to shout). This was different though, a name rang across the fields (my name). No, I didn’t have a name (I do now). My warpath was over, but two very bad things were happening. Wait, one had already happened. The sun caught on the figure of a man (Bucky Barnes), I knew he was shooting me (that doesn’t matter), but I couldn’t remember what the other bad thing was.

Was it time to wake up yet?

I couldn’t stay in this dream (nightmare) forever.


	11. Chapter 11

Thor collided with Iron Man mid air, they both moved to recover but the Hulk was already running at them again. Kamala’s arm shot out, her hand growing as it moved, she grabbed the Hulk’s arm and wrenched him backwards. His eyes snapped to her, snarling.

“Hulk, please stop.” Kamala’s distress was clear, she wasn’t used to Hulk’s anger being directed at her. “You’re going to make us crash!”

“Kamala, he’s not listening. We need to knock him out!” Tony was flying to move above the Hulk, sizing up the best angle to attack. Thor was recovering, but he still seemed a little dazed as he held his hand out, recalling his hammer.

The hammer shot through the ship, flying to Thor. It smashed into Hulk’s shoulder on the way past. Pulling his attention back away from Kamala. Thor was already pulling lightning into the hammer that was now firmly in his grip. Hulk lurched towards him; the sudden movement broke Kamala’s hold and she stumbled forwards as he barreled towards Thor. Tony aimed a propulser at the Hulk and fired, the lazer caught him in the shoulder and he turned to roar before going straight back to charging at Thor. The god had begun spinning Mjolnir, picking up speed rapidly. Finally, he shot forward; racing to meet the Hulk. The impact of the two was massive, knocking Kamala and Tony backwards. 

Steve had moved his shield into place, just in time to take most of the hit for Nat and Cress. He could see Bucky covering his face as the air began to settle again. He glanced back, to see Nat fear settling into Nat’s eyes as she watched the titans colid, none of them could realistically break this up. All they could do now was stay out of the way and hope Thor kept his head about him enough to knock Hulk out and end this quickly, assuming he could. He noticed Cress stir slightly, not enough to wake up, but her face moved, something like discomfort passed over it. Some part of his brain found it strange that she was only showing discomfort, and not screaming pain. But Steve had something else to take care of. He shot off his spot on the ground, racing across the half destroyed room towards Bucky.

He gave the Hulk and Thor a wide berth, dodging around ruined furniture. He finally neared close enough, leaping down and Bucky’s eyes flicked to him. He began to speak, but Steve would give him a chance to explain in a moment. For now, he punched him. Not at full strength, but enough to knock him down.

“Steve.” Bucky had the nerve to sound slightly offended.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Steve had to keep half an eye on the fight still going on. Kamala and Tony were throwing hits where they could, keeping Hulk’s attention focused in a smaller area, trying to minimise the damage. “You shot a woman who was under our care!”

“She’s a weapon, and a war criminal.” Bucky spat the words, eye flicking to watch Cress, she was still only just moving, her face still pulled into lines of discomfort, “And she’s probably been lying to you this whole time, how did she even get on? Did she break in? Maybe invited herself, promising she could help?”

“War criminal?” Steve remembered her addressing Bucky, the German had sounded disdainful, reluctant almost. “She didn’t sneak in, we found her, AIM had been experimenting on her. Who is she? I think she was about to tell us, or at least tell us some, until her head exploded.” He looked away from the fight to give Bucky a long, hard look, “Will she heal?”

“I think it’s obvious she already is.” Everything Bucky said relating to Cress was dipped in disgust, “Wait, AIM had her? Why? What was she doing there?” The disgust was tipping towards horror.

Steve was slightly taken aback by the look on Bucky’s face, he wanted to ask more, but time was cut off when Kamala came hurtling towards them. She smashed into the ground next to Steve, he turned, already moving towards her. He never failed to be impressed by the girl’s resilience. She was already pulling herself upwards, one hand pressed to her head.

“Steve…” her voice was rough, and her eyes slightly unfocused as she turned to him, “Why is that guy still standing” It took Steve a moment to realise she was talking about Bucky, not the Hulk. He didn’t have an answer for her, Kamala was the only one here who knew Cress better than she knew Bucky, well, aside from Bruce. “He just killed Cress! He did this to Bruce!”

“Kamala,” he could see the grief mixing with anger on her face, “Bucky is going to explain. Cress isn’t dead, she heals, remember? That’s why they had her.” she was already pulling herself back upright to join the fight again, “And Bruce… he’ll turn back to normal, you know that.”

“Yeah… whatever.” She flung herself back into the fray.

Steve cursed quietly, he didn’t have time to apologise for Bucky right now. Instead he grabbed his reckless friends hand and pulled him across the room, he needed to get back to Nat and Cress. The fight showed no sign of easing, though he could hear Tony starting to grow tired and even Thor looked like he was slowing. This was the problem with the Hulk, he didn’t get tired, just more angry and more dangerous. He needed to get everyone out of this part of the ship. They could lock it off and hopefully get to the bottom of this. If they could get Cress conscious, there was a chance her being ok would be enough to calm him. It was the best chance they had.

“How is she?” Steve dropped to a crouch beside Nat, Bucky was eyeing Cress with disgust, but seemed to be behaving for now.

“Not dead, at least.” Nat didn’t take her eyes off the fight in front of them, but her hand was behind her, firmly around Cress’ wrist.

“We need to get her out of this room, let her heal”

“We need to lock her up, before she heals,” Bucky’s interruption was harsh, “if she’s injured she won’t shift and kill us all.”

“She wasn’t going to shift and kill us all, from what I understand she’s only ever shifted and saved us.” Nat’s words were equally as harsh, Steve had no idea what the two of them were talking about.

“Can we argue about this once we get out of here?” Steve moved to scoop Cress up.

“Steve, don’t touch her,” Bucky tried to move between them, Nat made a strangled noise and was promptly flung aside.

“Don’t touch!” Hulk’s roared words made Steve fall backwards, it was all he could do to look up and see that Nat had landed safely. Bringing Bucky close to Cress had been a mistake, it had been enough to pull the Hulk’s attention back to her. Thor and Tony were picking themselves up off the ground and Kamala was desperately clinging to Hulk’s shoulders, trying to keep him away, it wasn’t doing any good. Finally, the Hulk shook her off, he stooped down, lifting Cress in his hands. Her head lolled to the side and she made a small sound, but still didn’t wake up. Steve tried to leap to them, one last attempt to knock him out, his shield strapped to his arm, but the Hulk had always been deceptively fast, he dodged the blow and roared back at the room. Then, before anyone could even realise what was happening, he ran and lept, smashing through the glass windows of the ship, and began the fall.

************

My body hurt. I tried to remember why that was, I remembered anger, my anger. And someone else’s. My anger had been a dream though, or at least a memory, had theirs. I groaned quietly as I tried to move. Someone growled in response, that was enough to make my eyes snap open. I was on the ground, grass and dirt was below me. There were trees above, with broken branches. Something had crashed through them, I spotted the “something” a moment later. The Hulk was pacing back and forth, huffing and growling, occasionally glancing at me, or snapping towards a sound in the forest; there weren’t many, most of the animals would have fled by now.

“Hulk…” The word sounded slurred and rough coming from my lips. The movement of my jaw sent pain shooting through my skull, I gasped before I could say more.  
That’s right, I had been shot in the head. I still wasn’t fully healed.

The Hulk lurched towards me, anger slid off his face, being replaced with something softer. Concern?

“I’m ok…” Not really true, not yet. “But, I think” I sucked in a sharp breath, trying to ignore the pain, “I think, I need Bruce back. Please?”

He growled quietly, but nodded. I couldn’t look away as he began to shrink down, until finally, Bruce Banner was before me. He staggered forward and I cursed the circumstances ruining my chance to see him shirtless. Bruce caught his breath, he’d landed on his hands and knees besides me. I could only just see him gasping, unable to sit up or turn my head still. He looked up at me, eyes filled with regret and sadness. He looked so lost and broken. I wanted to reassure him, but right now I didn’t even have the strength to reassure myself.

“Cress…”

“Hey you” I whimpered a little, trying to be casual was apparently not an option. “Sorry, I can’t sit up.”

“Where are we?” he had moved closer now, hands moving so gently across my body, shoulders, and arms. Searching for injuries?

“I don’t know… I wasn’t conscious for that part.” I cried out quietly as his touches caused my head to shift slightly. He immediately pulled away. “Usually I don’t wake up until I heal fully…”

“You were shot in the head.” He looked slightly sick as he said the words. “You lived.”

“I can heal just about anything…” His hands were moving lower, tracing over my torso. “Bruce, stop, if I am hurt, it’ll heal. Please.” I wasn’t really sure what I was pleading for. But his frenetic energy was too much, I couldn’t handle it while my head was screaming on the inside.

“You have at least one broken rib…” He had stopped looking for injuries and swapped to raking his hands through his hair, throwing me distressed looks, “The Hulk must have jumped with you. Even with him taking the bulk of the damage… Cress I’m so sorry”

The healing was starting to move faster now. My head was clearing, and I could feel my limbs as more than just blinding pain again. I took a steadying breath and tried to sit up. Bruce reacted right away, helping me, his arm wrapped around my shoulders to support me.

“Thanks,” I leaned into him, “You aren’t… going to ask about Barnes?”

“Cress…” I felt, more than a heard, his low growl at the name, “Please don’t mention him. I need a clear head here.”

“I won’t be fully healed for a while… but I think I will be able to stand soon.”

His grip around my shoulders tightened slightly, holding me firmly against him. I thought I heard him mumble something, then his lips moved, pressing against my temple. The pressure hurt, but I cherished it nonetheless. Sitting up allowed me to see a little more of the clearing we were in. There had been some smaller trees, but the Hulk had obviously felt they were in his way and had stomped them down while waiting for her to wake up.

“He was right you know, Bruce,” I felt him jump slightly, as I broke the stretched out silence. “I was, am, a monster. They made me into a weapon. And I acted like one.

Alchemists found their way into the good graces of the German army. From what I heard, Red Skull hated them. Resented that anyone thought they could make better weapons than him. He thought the way to victory was brute strength, and magic. The Alchemists wanted to combine chemicals and magic. They did that in me. Then, one day I, and others, escaped, and we got mad. We did horrible things, to anyone who got in our path. It didn’t matter what side they were on. We were just so angry; and scared.”

I waited, wandering if Bruce understood what I was saying. Maybe he thought my injury was making me delusional. Instead, he pulled me up onto his lap, my back rested against his chest, his arms wrapped around me, and his chin shifted to sit on my shoulder.

“Anger and fear make us do dumb things. Sometimes we lose control, but you didn’t make yourself into this.” He took a deep breath, “And if people can forgive me, even though I made myself into a monster, I can forgive you”

“Thank you, Bruce. I don’t deserve that, but, thank you.”

“And here I’d been worried you were too young for me”

I laughed until it turned into crying, and then did that until I fell asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgive my being late this week. It was an off one for me, and I had to push a little harder to make it happen. But I'm glad I did, brick by brick they say. Just gotta keep pushing out one chapter at a time.

I didn’t sleep much, Bruce could really only act as my support for so long before he needed to shift to be comfortable and the movement jolted me awake again. For a moment I was dazed, he was apologising for waking me, but I was busy trying to make sure I remembered everything that had happened. Head injuries were scary like that, I could physically heal, and the magic that bolstered the science that had been used to make me SHOULD keep my mind intact, but how reliable was that really? I didn’t fully understand how the magic worked, so I’d never been willing to trust it. Not entirely.

“Bruce,” I cut off his apologies, “please don’t be sorry for needing to move.” I untangled myself from his arms and started moving to my feet. A headache lingered, and my ribs protested, but overall I seemed healed enough to function again. I turned, offering a hand to pull Bruce up, he looked at it with uncertainty, “I can handle pulling you upright, I promise.”

After a pause, he took my hand and rose to his feet. When we were both upright I took a second to dust myself off; it was a waste of time. Blood coated my top, and my bottoms hadn’t fared much better. The sticky coat was acting like tar, and the dirt had become the feathers. I frowned as I wondered if it would be appropriate to wander around the forest mostly naked, ideally after burning these. Finally, I signed and resigned myself to look, and smell, like a bloody mess until we found somewhere to wash up.  
Bruce was walking around the clearing, his eyes avoiding the damage done by the Hulk. I wondered if the entire helicarrier looked like this. How long had it been between me being shot at the Hulk leaping off with me. I liked to think if it had crashed I’d be able to tell, see some sign, or maybe smell the smoke; so I convinced myself it must still be in the air. Was everyone on it all right? Had he killed Barnes? I didn’t exactly like the guy, but I knew he had his reasons. A frown was deepening on Bruce’s face as he paced, probably thinking down a similar line of thought as me, maybe without the concern or Barnes.

“Let’s try and find our way… somewhere.” He startled when I spoke.

“It’ll be easier for them to track us if we stay where the Hulk landed”  
“Bruce, we don’t know if this is where he landed or if he ran here.” I tried to soften my tone as I said what we were both avoiding thinking about, “and we don’t know if anyone is in any state to come find us, we need to at least be out of this forest.”

I took his hand gently, trying to still him. His face was pulled tight with anxiety and grief, he’d finally stopped pacing, eyes locking on me; the grief began to melt away, being replaced by resignation. He signed and his shoulders fell a little, but some of that distressed energy seeped out of him, and he nodded.

*******  
They’d been walking for about an hour, Bruce’s legs were getting a little tired. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off the back of Cress’s head. Her hair fell behind her like normal, but it shouldn’t have. He’d had only seconds to take in the sight of her being shot before the Hulk took over, it had looked so final. He had been convinced that would be beyond her healing abilities. When he had come to in that clearing, emerging to the sound of her voice, he’d never been so relieved. Bruce’s hand tightened on here's a little at the thought, she squeezed back in return and threw him a weary smile.

They’d managed to stumble onto a worn in path, probably a hunters trail. The ground was more stable, and Bruce was finally able to take in the forest around him. Trees rose up around them, they must have been old to be so large. It was oddly quiet, Bruce figured the animals were still in hiding from the Hulk; he understood, he was too. Cress had calmed him down, but it was still there, that anger, bubbling under the surface. His hand tightened slightly on Cress’s as the image of her head exploding played over in his head.

She healed. She healed and it was fine now. Steve had probably already locked Barnes up, assuming the Hulk hadn’t killed him. Not a helpful thought.

“Cress, how are you feeling?”

She jumped a little, slowing a little so she walked beside him. The path had gotten wide enough to walk side by side, their fingers shifted to intertwine. Like two people going for a casual walk, maybe on a date. As long as you ignored the blood, and Bruce’s lack of shirt. He was grateful it wasn’t too cold.

“I’m healing. I can still feel it… but the damage is nearly gone. The magic it… keeps me together, even if I’m broken.”

“I’ve gotta say, I prefer the science parts,” he knocked her shoulder playfully, “this magic stuff will probably make more sense to Thor.”

“Yeah, I prefer the science parts too. Magic, and people like Thor, aren’t really my type.” Her eyes flicked over his bare torso, “Though, maybe you’re a little more like him than I thought…”  
“I’m not sure if that’s flattery,” he chuckled at her words, “Or if you’re making fun of me. Pretty impressive to be flirting with me while caked in blood though.”

She blushed, her shoulders shifting in self consciously. The path was growing wider, looking less like a hunters trail. Bruce tried to think back to the area below the helicarrier, he couldn’t think of anywhere within the forest that would call for anything like a road, though the tree cover above them was still quite thick, there could be a cabin nearby. The silence stretched out, it was comfortable and secure. He kept hold of her hand, this peace would inevitably shatter and Bruce wasn’t ready for that.

“There’s something up here.” Bruce startled as Cress spoke, her face was lined with concern, “The air is more metallic.”

“More metallic?”

“I can… feel the heavy metals. They sort of diffuse in the air. It’s been steadily getting more metallic as we walked, but I thought, maybe there was a mine or something. This is too much though. We must be walking closer to something.”

All Bruce could see ahead of them were more trees, it was still quiet though. No animals still though. The forest was quiet, nothing was emerging, even this long after the Hulk was gone. Bruce felt the tension return, for all he knew they were about to come across a SHIELD outpost, but why wouldn’t the team already know of it? He wanted to believe it was just new, maybe he hadn’t seen the report about it. What if it was the helicarrier? Could they be approaching a crash site? A SHIELD outpost he didn’t know about was still ideal. There were other options, but they only got worse as he went down the list.

Cress’s hand slipped from his as the tension built, he missed her touch, but some part of him was grateful. If things turned bad, she didn’t need to be holding hands with the Hulk. The forest thinned, light began to stream though, and a buzzing noise broke through. The options for what they were approaching dropped to one, Bruce’s stomach dropped, and an AIM compound came into sight, dones buzzing around the small building.

“Bruce, that’s…”

“AIM, yeah.” It came out as a low growl.

“No, on top of it. That’s a transmitter. It’s so close to the helicarrier.”

Bruce’s eyes swept up, there was an antenna on top of the building, a big one. Dread flooded him.   
“Wait here.” How had it been missed this close to them? A question he’d answer once he got rid of it. He reached out to stop Cress getting closer to it, threw her an apologetic smile, and took lid off his rage.


End file.
